Panasonic, Trend Micro partner on cyber security for connected cars

Panasonic Corporation and Trend Micro Incorporated yesterday announced a partnership on cyber security for connected cars.

The security arrangement is aimed at detecting and preventing cyber-attacks against autonomous and connected cars.

It is expected to detect and prevent intrusions into Electronic Control Units (ECUs), which regulate such driving behavior as acceleration, steering and braking.

Also included are in-vehicle infotainment devices, including automotive navigation systems and telematics maneuverings.

According to the firms, the need to implement control in each vehicle, was necessitated by the new security vulnerabilities being discovered every day.

Also included are the risks of hackers taking control of steering and braking systems in connected cars.

The partnership is also to analyse these new attacks by constantly monitoring in-vehicle systems from the cloud and utilising the results to implement counter-measures against cyber-attacks to all vehicles.

Both firms are expected to leverage Panasonic’s Control Area Network (CAN) intrusion detection, as well as prevention technology and Trend Micro IoT Security.

With the proposal, Panasonic’s technology would be able to detect any unauthorised commands sent to ECUs that control driving operation.

On the other hand, Trend Micro IoT Security, which utilises Trend Micro’s global security intelligence and expertise such as malware analysis, would be implemented on IVI devices such as automotive navigation systems.

This would detect attacks that seek to exploit vulnerabilities through the internet.

Through this partnership, events identified by both technologies, would be collected and sent to an analysis platform in the cloud to detect and block suspicious traffic.

According to the Vice President of Cloud Research, Mark Nunnikhoven: “Vehicles have long been held to high physical safety standards and are now adding more and more technologies features like wifi hotspots, connected entertainment systems, and robotic brains.

“Bolting cyber security defences onto these designs will be extremely challenging. It would take the global leadership of companies like Panasonic and Trend Micro to ensure that the connected future of vehicles is a safe one.”

The firms would work on the development toward launching it for commercial use after 2020.